The key suspect in the hunt for the new ‘Jihadi John’ was able to
travel to Syria with his wife and four children under the noses of the
security services, despite being on bail for alleged terrorism offences,
it has emerged.
The family of British Muslim convert, Siddhartha
Dhar, admitted that the killer seen shooting one of five prisoners in
the head in the latest Isis (Islamic State) video, could be the
32-year-old former bouncy castle salesman from east London. Both his
mother and sister said they had watched the video, released by Isis on
Monday, and noticed similarities between the voice of the masked jihadi
and Dhar.
Dhar, who is also known as Abu Rumasayah, was arrested
in September 2014 alongside preacher Anjem Choudary on suspicion of
belonging to banned group Al-Muhajiroun. Choudary will appear in court
on suspicion of terror offences next week, but Dhar fled Britain.
Just
hours after being granted police bail, Dhar caught a bus to Paris with
his family and then travelled on to Syria where he joined Isis. He
posted pictures on Twitter, which showed him in the Caliphate holding an
AK-47 assault rifle in one arm and his baby son on the other.
Voice
recognition experts working for the security services were understood
to be urgently scrutinising the Isis video amid the suggestion that the
Islamist’s voice matched that of Dhar. Analysts will be able to glean a
huge amount of information, including a possible positive identity from
the gunman’s distinctive accent, language and tone. Dr Frederika Holmes,
a forensic speech and voice analyst said the sound on the video was of
such good quality that experts would be able to compare very accurately
against existing audio clips.
“
Dhar’s sister, Konika
Dhar, said she did not want to believe that her brother could be
responsible for the outrage, but conceded that the voice on the video
“did sound like him”.
She said: “I can’t believe it. This is just
so shocking for me. I don’t know what the authorities are doing to
confirm the identity, but I need to know if it is.” She said he had
converted more than 10 years ago, and her memories of her brother are
from when they were children and teenagers. “He was a very pleasant boy,
and I know it may be hard to believe but he still is, and I still
believe that he still can be that person.”
Dhar, who was brought
up a Hindu, ran a firm hiring out bouncy castles, before marrying his
Muslim wife Aisha and becoming radicalised.
Meanwhile, the
grandfather of the 4-year-old London boy in the video has spoken of his
disgust after the child was used as a propaganda tool.
Isa Dare,
whose mother Grace wants to become the first British woman to execute a
Western hostage, talked in the film of killing “kuffars” or
non-believers.
Grace Dare, 24, who changed her name to Khadijah
after converting to Islam as a teenager, is a former media studies
student who is suspected of producing the slick video, in which five
hostages are shot dead before Isa appears in the final seconds, dressed
in camouflage gear and a black Isis headband.
Grace Dare’s father
Henry, who confirmed that the boy in the film is “definitely” his
grandson, said: “Of course I’m worried but there is nothing I can do
now. I just hope someone is trying to bring them back.”
In a
direct appeal to his daughter, who travelled to Syria in 2012 to become a
jihadi bride, he said: “Grace, Grace, come home with my grandchildren.
Come home, we love you. Come and face the music.”
He also told Channel 4 News: “He doesn’t know anything, he is just a small boy. They are just using him as a shield. It’s propaganda. “
Grace
Dare, who was born in Lambeth to Nigerian immigrant parents in 1991, is
a widowed mother-of-two whose second husband, a Swedish jihadi called
Abu Bakr, was killed.
Writing under the Twitter name Muhajirah fi
Sham (immigrant in Syria) she said after the murder of US journalist
James Foley in 2014: “Any links 4 da execution of da journalist plz.
Allahu Akbar. UK must b shaking up ha ha. I wna b da 1st UK woman 2 kill
a UK or US terrorist!”
She also posted a picture of Isa, aged
around 3, aiming a Kalashnikov automatic rifle he was barely big enough
to lift.Telegraph Group Ltd